Archive for the ‘Motorcycle Gear Articles’ Category

Scorpion motorcycle helmets are very special. Scorpion is an American brand, designed in the USA, and the helmets are quality for a reasonable, often low, price.

As a model group, the Scorpion Exo helmets have a good and solid feel to them, and although they weigh more than the average upmarket helmet, they feel much lighter. And that is because of good engineering, making the helmet’s center lower than normal.

Another thing that sets Scorpion apart from its competitors is noise, or in this case the absence of noise. Scorpion helmets are some of the quietest helmets out there.

Models like the entry-level full-face Scorpion Exo 400 are made out of an Advanced Polycarbonate Composite Engineered Shell, resistant towards impact but still light enough to wear comfortably. Although it weights 3 lbs 15 oz, which is considered heavy, it’s still light enough for long rides. Even though this is an entry-level helmet, it’s very good with sufficient color and graphics to give you ample choices. It’s good enough to use as your everyday brain-bucket.

So if you are in the market for a low cost but quality helmet, you can not go wrong with the Exo 400. If you’re not into a full-face helmet, try the Scorpion Exo 200, a jet (open face) style helmet.

With Scorpion, the higher the number, the higher the quality, and therefore the higher the price.

The Scorpion Exo 700 motorcycle helmet is their mid-range full-face offering. It has a removable moisture wicking liner, and if you ride in foggy or moist climates, a very good fog treated visor and it has excellent air flow. The Exo 700 shell is made out of fiberglass and Kevlar, and although these materials should make it lighter, they still weigh 3 lbs 13 oz, not a lightweight but not too heavy either.

The UK motorcycle helmet government testing report gave the Exo 700 4 stars out of 5 (source)

The Exo 700 has recently been superseded by the Exo 750, a fiberglass and Kevlar helmet. Many of the features found on the Exo 1000 helmet (described below) can now be found on this very successful model.

If not, try the Exo 500 helmet. It’s newer, and weighs 3 lbs 10-5/8 oz. It has many of the features you’ll find on their upmarket helmet, the Exo 1000. The Exo 500 is currently one of their best selling helmets.

The UK motorcycle helmet government testing report gave the Exo 500 4 stars out of 5 (source)

The Scorpion Exo 1000 motorcycle helmet is one of their top-of-the-line helmets. The helmet fits tightly (so watch out if using it with glasses, make sure you try it beforehand), making the helmet very safe. The more play there is with a helmet, the more dangerous they are. The helmet is equipped with an air pump, that when pressed, will inflate your cheek-pads. It might sound like a gadget, but any motorcycle racer will tell you that a proper helmet fits totally around your head, face and cheeks. If it doesn’t, you may have a problem. The air pump will ensure that the helmet stays in place if you go off the bike, protecting you head.

The Exo 1000 has 4 different air flow entry points, each can be opened or closed independently. Despite being their upmarket helmet, it’s heavy, 4 lbs 1/4 oz. This makes the helmet more difficult for smaller bikers, especially female riders. But fear not, Scorpion also make helmets specially for females.

The UK motorcycle helmet government testing report gave the Exo 1000 4 stars out of 5 (source)

Most of the Scorpion helmets have a EverClear no-fog coating face shield, protecting you against the build up of fog inside your helmet. The face shields / visors can be removed in seconds.

And finally, while you’re at it, have a look at the cool Scorpion Exo jackets. The ExoWear jackets are durable, rain proof, and offer a lot of protection against not only the elements, but also road rash. You have an excellent choice in colors, from the more traditional dark colors to high visibility fluorescent yellow.

For your benefit, Scorpion have an iPhone app (free) that allows you to see more about their main products.

We’ve talked a few months ago about a new technology helmet coming from Russia, the Livemap helmet. But in the mean time, several other companies have announced the design of these kind of high-tech helmets.

One of the latest is from California and is called Skully Helmets. Skully Helmets, like Livemap, is stuffed with technologies; Heads Up Display, GPS, 180° video camera, Bluetooth connection, etc. (but it’s not limited to Skully; Nuviz, BikeHUD and even Reevu)

Skully Helmet

Jetfighter HUD

The technology used is what you will keep seeing, either integrated inside the helmet, or standalone like Google Glass. The idea is to provide essential information to the rider without overloading the biker.

Safety-wise it’s a double edge sword; the technology allows the rider to receive important information, like telemetry data (speed, revs, temperature, etc), navigation instructions (GPS), road & traffic data and other information without their eyes leaving the road. It’s safer since the rider can concentrate on the road and traffic.

But on the downside is the fact that there is more and more information given to the rider, with is not only a distraction but also an information overload. And furthermore, developers will not stop there. What about that important email from your boss? Shouldn’t that be displayed as well? Or the latest stock prices?

It is one of the reasons that Google Glass has been forbidden to be used while driving almost everywhere in the world.

So on one side, it’s handy to have a Robocop-like helmet, but on the other side, it the development is not strictly controlled, it will become a danger.

When the weather gets cold, really cold, and the snow is on the ground, most of even the hardest of hardcore bikers will leave their motorcycles in the garage. Only a very few will go out in winter conditions on their motorcycle; some because of their passionate love for riding a motorcycle, some because they have no choice.

But whether you ride in the winter or not, the advantages of owning heated jackets (and even trousers and gloves) has advantages that many have not considered.

First of all, if you do decide to ride in the winter, you really need to keep very warm. If your body cools down, you are going to lose your focus and when you do, you are going to have an accident. Wrapping yourself up in layers of clothing is good, but probably not sufficient. Read these articles (part 1, part 2, part 3) we wrote about winter riding to find out more.

Putting on electrically heated clothing is going to make you feel very comfortable. So if you are planning to ride in the winter, plan to get some heated jackets at least. There are male and female versions. Heated gloves are going to be pretty much in demand as well.

An Advantage You Will Not Have Thought Of

But there is another advantage of owning heated clothing you probably will not have thought of. And that is to use it when driving your car!

When your car sits outside in the cold, and you arrive in the morning to drive to work, all shivering, you start your car and put on the heater. Then you drive off, and all the time you wait for the heater to get to a proper temperature. And this takes quite some time, and then when you’ve reached a proper and cozy temperature, you’re probably already close to work, and your windows are fogged up.

If you put on an electrically heated liner for example under your coat, plug it in when you enter your car, you’ll find that the heat builds up almost instantaneously. So you will be warm and cozy even before you drive out of your street.

The other advantages are that your windows will not fog up and you use less power to heat your liner (and maybe gloves) than your conventional heater. Motorcycle heated clothing are made to be used on motorcycles where there is less power than in a car, so electrical consumption is far less, so you use less gas.

So now you can drive your car in the winter while feeling nice and warm, all by using your heated motorcycle clothing.

At the Italian Eicma motorcycle exhibition, the world’s largest, Bell helmets made quite a splash with its recently announced Bullitt helmet. More and more motorcycles are being produced nowadays that have that retro look; the shape and design of yesteryears but with modern technology, so it goes without saying that the same fashion should come to our helmets.

Bell Bullitt Helmet

The Bullitt helmet looks very much like an old fashion helmet, dating back a couple of decades ago. With a bubble visor, you in fact get more breathing room, so on its own, not a bad idea. But it is only the exterior that looks “old”; the helmet itself is high tech and fully DOT certified.

The shell is made out of a fiber composite, the inside is removable and washable, there are 5 air intake vents and the inside has precut areas for loudspeakers for those of you who want to install a Bluetooth communication kit.

Bell Bullitt Helmet with no visor

And to make matter even easier, you can remove the visor and place goggles. Now how looks like Steve McQueen? Or just ride around with your sunglasses.

The helmet weighs 1400 grams, and three colors will be offered (metallic blue, matte black and cream/red).

The Bullitt helmet will be available next year in March 2014 and should cost around $399.

NoNoise is a new Dutch company that makes different ear plugs to stop noise while riding your motorcycle.

The silicon-free ear plugs have been built to last, and inside the ear plug is a ceramic filter. It is this filter that remove the rumble of your bike while riding, but allows you to listen to your Bluetooth headset, music and traffic. So it is safe to use, and it remove the fuzzy-head syndrome after a ride.

The also have different types of earplugs, depending on use: sleeping, swimming, shooting etc.

The ear plugs are delivered in a nice metal canister that is easy to take with you and allows you to keep the ear plugs clean. They have recently signed up an American distributor, so expect to see them in stores shortly.

A lot of the development done in the racing world finds its way to consumer helmets and it shows. Many Shark helmets are high tech with an innovative design. Easy to use, light, comfortable and most important, safe. All helmets are approved by world’s safety agencies, and the helmets have all received 4 or 5 stars in the Sharp helmet safety rating.

Shark has four main helmet ‘divisions’. Each division has its own style and use:

Shark Racing

This is the helmet used for racing. They are top-end helmets developed with professional racers like WSBK racer Sylvian Guintoli. Helmets that you can buy, some even as replicas of the racer’s helmet. These helmets use the latest technology, like the Race-R Pro Carbon helmet.

Shark Pulse

These helmets have been developed by Shark’s R&D department for areas like stunt riding or just plain street riding. All have been made to be very light and comfortable.

Shark Discovery

The Discovery division looks after helmets meant for long distance riding. The helmets have been developed with assistance of one of world’s leading movie stuntmen, Jean-Pierre Goy. Helmets are light, comfortable for long distances, and used off-road. The modular helmet Evoline series 3 is very popular thanks to its innovative design.

Shark Metro

Shark RAW

These helmets are designed for clean looks, used in the city. This is where you will find open face helmets and helmets used predominantly by scooter riders in the city. The Shark Raw helmet has caught the fancy of many riders recently.

Depending on the usage, Shark uses many different technologies inside their helmets. You will find helmets made out of carbon fiber, helmets with air pumps or with Shark’s own built-in wireless communication system, Shark Tooth.

Italian Acerbis showed an interesting motorcycle jacket that promotes our safety at night. As you can see from the animated gif photo below, the jacket has several LED strips built in to the jacket (sides, rear and front).

Acerbis High-LED jacket

The LEDs have a low battery usage, and at night you can see the LED, but they are not strong. The animated gif was taken in full light, so you can not see how strong the lights are, but you get the message.

The jacket is called “High-LED” and is made out of Nylon Polyamide with Oxford 1680D reinforcements. It has a removable interior and EVA back protector

Airoh helmets showed a different technology for motorcycle helmets to keep our cool during hot weather. They have a new visor system that reflects heat.

In the photo below, the first one you see the visor when it is hit by hot sunlight:

Warm sunlight

And in the next photo you see it during normal weather, when even with direct sunlight but not hot, the visor is clear. Obviously the sunlight strength is filtered out of your eyes, but more important, there is less heat coming into your helmet.

We’ve already talked about the wonder material from D3O (click here to read it). It is light, extremely shock absorbant and it’s even high-tech. D3O have adapted their materials to the new protection requirement, EN1621-2.

D3O King Cobra

The Cobra series are available for protection level 1 or 2. As you can see it is quite thin (22.5 mm) and will withstand crashes in all kinds of weather and temperatures.

D3O Cobra Pro

The ultimate protection is called King Cobra, a level 2 protection for your back. The Cobra Pro featured here is level 2 as well.